UN Convention to regulate trade in hazardous pesticides

Negotiations to establish a legally binding convention
governing trade in hazardous pesticides and chemicals
should be concluded in early 1998, based on progress made
during a five-day meeting at FAO headquarters that finished
on 24 October 1997. The meeting was attended by more than
250 delegates from about 100 countries.

Farmers in
developing countries are particularly vulnerable to
the effects of pesticides

The new legally binding convention would replace a
voluntary Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure, which is
managed jointly by FAO and the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP). The PIC procedure, established in 1989,
currently regulates trade in 22 banned or severely
restricted pesticides and five harmful industrial chemicals.
Some 154 countries participate in the procedure, which
requests exporting countries to comply with import decisions
of potential importers, and provides information on
substances that are banned or severely restricted in certain
countries and of the reasons for this. The aim of PIC is to
protect human and animal health and the environment in
developing countries.

Deaths and illness caused by dangerous pesticides are
impossible to count. But it is clear that farmers in
developing countries are particularly vulnerable to the
effects of chemicals when they cannot afford the necessary
protective gear and are not fully informed about the dangers
of the substances they are working with. In China in 1995,
more than 48 000 cases of pesticide poisoning were reported,
including 3 204 deaths.

In the most recent negotiating session, countries agreed
that all of the chemicals on the voluntary PIC watchlist
will be covered by the legally binding convention. In
addition to requiring exporters to inform importing
countries if substances are on the watchlist, the list
itself is on the Internet and available to all.

Niek van der Graaff, Chief of FAO's Plant Protection
Service, Plant Production and Protection Division and joint
Secretary of the InterGovernmental Negotiating Committee,
and Gerold Wyrwal, Agricultural Officer Pesticide
Information, spoke to us about the use of pesticides in the
developing world and the contribution that a legally binding
convention will make to improved safety standards
(Go to interview).